Dionisio showcases work on shooting in Magnolia’s quarterfinal berth-clinching win

MANILA, Philippines -- Hard work in practice paid off for the Magnolia Hotshots' Aris Dionisio.

Magnolia defeated the NorthPort Batang Pier, 110-94, on Friday night to complete the quarterfinal cast of Group A in the PBA Governors' Cup, thanks to Dionisio's hot shooting.

With the two teams playing without their respective imports, Dionisio shot the lights out and set a new franchise-record for 3-pointers in a game.

He made nine out of his 11 3-point attempts, eclipsing the previous record set by Boyet Fernandez.

He was already waxing hot as early as the first quarter, as he made four of his triples in the opening canto.

NorthPort was thus eliminated from contention, with the Converge FiberXers joining the TNT Tropang Giga and the Meralco for the playoffs.

After the game, Dionisio said that he has been regularly shooting before and sometimes after practices.

“Every day, I make it a point to shoot. If I can still do it after practice, I will practice shooting. So my extra practice, extra shooting bore fruit,” he told reporters in Filipino.

The forward also emphasized that the team has been having slow starts in previous games, which pushed him to go hard especially in a must-win contest.

“Every game, Coach [Chito Victolero] mentions that we have to start strong because all of our games, we had slow starts, which pushes us to have a hard time recovering in the end. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. I just thought that I need to go hard because this is a must-win,” he said.

He also thanked his teammates for finding him.

NorthPort trailed by as much as 26 points, 55-81, in the third quarter.

They trailed by 24, 81-105, with less than three minutes left in the fourth quarter, before the Batang Pier unleashed 13 straight points to cut the lead to 11, 94-105, with 1:02 remaining.

A pair of free throws by Lee and Dionisio’s record-breaking corner triple kept them at bay.

For his part, head coach Chito Victolero said  Dionisio deserves to break the franchise record.

“As he said, every day, he works on his shot early and he has extra practice. We expect Aris to grow this season, and we talked about it before the start of the season,” he said.

“We need his offense. Not just his offense, but his versatility on defense. He deserves to have a breakout game, and hopefully, this becomes consistent. He will work on it,” he added.

Converge and Magnolia will face in a virtual race to the coveted third spot on Monday, 5:30 p.m., at the Ninoy Aquino Stadium.